Have you ever noticed when you are designing a website, you have a tendency to fall back on what worked in the past for you? Does it get to the point where all your sites start to look the same? I call this the “Mike Bra
The point is, we all get stale and it can be challenging to come up with new designs. For me, I don’t have the option of repeated trips back to the drawing board, so I tend to have at least 2 other designers create a mockup along with myself. This allows my clients to have really good choices and the end result tends to be something special. As my company develops sites for small businesses, this type of service is pretty rare, and I am proud of that. Now if I were strictly a designer I may not be able to do this, but since I also develop and ultimately manage the sites, it is my best interest to create something special, even if the design phase can be quite costly. I also try to rotate in new freelancers to create designs, as using the same few ends up back with Brady Houses.
So let me ask you this, if you are a designer, you need to get inspiration to avoid the syndrome I mentioned. Where do you go for that inspiration? Websites? A walk in nature? I would love to hear. I am sure those pulling their hair out would like to know as well.
Welcome to the common sense blog. The basis of our business at RooSites is to create world class websites, that look good, perform well in searches and have quality content. This should be the basis of everyone’s website. Simplistic? Yes, but to me that is what it is all about. If you fulfill the 3 things I mentioned, and you pay a reasonable price, your site should be a success. To me this is common sense, (thus the wonderfully imaginative blog title) but the amount of spam I receive from SEO firms all over the world lead me to believe I am in the minority here….That somehow SEO tricks and the dreaded “We can reverse engineer google” firms know something more than you do.
Let me tell you they can’t reverse engineer Google. Period. No, not a guy in Bangalore, nor a guy in the Ukraine or even a kind of smart guy in Boston can. Unless perhaps you build an army of PHDs you can’t figure out the search algorithm. Ok, I suppose Albert Einstein could have developed the theory of Search rather than relativity had he lived in this point in time. But he didn’t and Dr. Salk ain’t walking through the door to switch to search research either. Please don’t get me wrong, there are legit SEO firms out there, just beware of the firms claiming to make you number one in a short period of time. If they could do it for you, they would do it for themselves. My stock answer when they call is to do a quick google search for phrases “SEO” and “Search Engine Optimization” and let them know they aren’t in the top 50 (usually 100). I ask them what they charge and offer to double their fee. Of course only if they can make themselves number 1 in the period of time they claim to be able to do for me. I have yet to ever have to pay.
So what do you do? Stick to the basics, hire a good firm (like RooSites) and work hard on your site. The main mistake is putting a site up and forgetting about it. I liken it to a store still selling pet rocks, member’s only jackets and ashtrays. Probably go out of business pretty quick. I recommend making (at least) monthly website updates, (more, much more if possible, weekly is ideal) whether it is news, new products, articles, blogging. Whatever. Give your viewers a reason to keep coming back to your website. In this business, stale = fail, so keep your content fresh!
Anyway, that is it for now. I will be writing when the urge hits me about all things web development….and of course taking a common sense approach.
